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Superstar Jay-Z is the first billionaire rapper, says Forbes

Jay-Z once rapped "I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man." Turns out he was right.

The superstar rapper is also a fashion trendsetter, a streaming music mogul, a sports management company owner and Mr. Beyonce Knowles.

All that has helped him to become the first billionaire rapper, according to Forbes
.

"Less than a decade later, it's clear that Jay-Z has accumulated a fortune that conservatively totals $1 billion, making him one of only a handful of entertainers to become a billionaire—and the first hip-hop artist to do so," Forbes' Zack O'Malley Greenburg writes.

The media company ticked through the various businesses that Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, either owns or has a stake in, including:

Jay-Z, who grew up in a Brooklyn housing project, rose to fame in 1996 with his debut album "Reasonable Doubt." His sixth album, 2001's "The Blueprint," was added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry
-- reserved for albums that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" -- earlier this year.

Back in 2014, music mogul Dr. Dre claimed he was hip-hop's first billionaire
after he sold Beats Music, the high-end headphones and streaming music service, to Apple. But it's estimated that while that blockbuster deal pushed Dre's net worth to about $1.1 billion, state and local taxes ultimately nudged it to just below the $1 billion-dollar mark.